5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BIKE TO WORK

‘Many of us hate our daily work commutes. But what if we told you that commutes don’t need to be boring, that they can in fact be fun and energising? We give you five good reasons why you should bike to work.’
We always complain that we don’t have enough time to exercise in these fast and restless times. With our commutes taking an hour each way in most big cities of the world, where do we have the time to exercise and give our hearts the necessary thirty minutes a day?
Well, the answer is active commuting. You either jog or bike to work, instead of taking the bus or driving. Jogging may be a good solution if your workplace is less than five kilometres away, but for longer distances, a bicycle may be your best choice for active commuting. Here are five reasons why you should bike to work.
1. You will save time.
By combining your commuting and your exercising time, you will add at least an hour to your life every day, which means more time to do the things that you want – whether it is spending time with family or pursuing a hobby. In a preventive medicine study, people who switched from passive commuting to active commuting reported feeling more ‘on hand’ with their daily timetables and less stressed with their work activities.
2. You will have a lean body
This is not hard to believe. Study upon study has shown that people who commute actively to their work via a bike are more likely than non-cyclists to have lean bodies that are more aligned with their recommended Body Mass Indices. Bike commuting can burn around 200 calories each way, and it is a great way to give your heart the 30-minute exercise it needs on a daily basis with no special allocation of time or resources required.
3. You will boost your overall well-being
Not just your physical self will thank you for this daily work out, your mind will be refreshed too. Exercise has always been associated with meditative qualities, because when one is exercising, there is mental focus on one thing rather than being in a distracted state that today’s life demands. People who bike to work report higher overall well being than those who use other, more traditional forms of commuting.
4. You are less likely to be injured
One of the biggest impediments to people taking up biking as a means of commute is the fear of falling and injury. This used to be a valid fear before, but now, more and more cities around the world are investing in biking infrastructure, which means that you’re less likely to be injured on a bike than you were before. With that fear taken away, what is keeping you away from a bike?
5. You fall sick less often
Studies have shown that people who bike to work as a habit take less sick days overall compared to those who commute passively. This is again no surprise, because you will be healthier both in mind and body, and you will enjoy that feeling so much that you will actually look forward to going to work. How’s that for motivation?